Os imperativos da arte: encontros com a loucura em Portugal do século XX

This research aims to study the formation of a debate about the art of the insane or artistic expressions of the alienated, in the portuguese context of the twentieth century. Accordingly, it is proposed to develop a series of statements that qualify the works in one form or another, as art or as a result of madness. It is known that from the turn of the nineteenth century to the twentieth century, a number of artists and theorists began to be interested in the ways expressed by the patients of psychiatric institutions due to their abilities of unraveling an inner world, airtight and difficult to understand. Thus, in Europe, were put together several collections showing the visual work of the patients in psychiatric hospitals, as well as private collections initiated by artists interested in the aesthetic and simbolic characteristics of such a work. Portugal is the focus of the research but, without being limited: it is proposed to go to all possible sides of the story and time, in order to outline the relationship between art and madness in that country.